Confusion with Trump’s Three Tweets

A sudden trifect of tweets from the president, on a Wednesday morning in July 2017, threw into question the lives and livelihoods of all active transgender military members:

It had been only a year since the Obama administration announced that these individuals could serve their country openly, having found after an exhaustive review that the likely impact on the military was minimal.

Reporters quickly pointed out that the “tremendous medical costs” cited by the president amounted to less than 10 percent of what the military paid out each year to treat erectile dysfunction.

“So much careful thought had gone into development of the policy, with consensus at the highest levels of military leadership,” wrote the former US Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus Jr.

“I cannot recall another instance in United States military history of such a stark and unfounded reversal of policy.”